In December when most plants had finished flowering, I noticed some pale purple flowers huddled in among long grass.  Initially, identification eluded me, so I picked a leaf off one of the plants and crushed it in my fingers.  It had a faint, but very distinct, mint scent.  Still it eluded me as the flower didn’t quite look like any that were in my Field Guides.

On the weekend I came across the book ‘Flora of the Otway Plain and Ranges 2” by Enid Mayfield  which contains clear descriptions and botanical illustrations of a range of plants found in and around the Otways in Victoria. While we don’t live directly in this region, it is close enough to us that many of the plants grow here too.  Looking at Mayfield’s description of ‘mint characteristics’ and then the various species in the family, I finally matched my photographs with a species of mint.  Just to confirm that I was on the right track, I checked on the VicVeg website to make sure that Slender Mint grows in Corangamite.  It does.

According to Mayfield, the Slender Mint plant flowers all year round, but we haven’t had flowers since January. This may simply be a matter of the kangaroos or wallabies eating them or it may be because of the very dry weather.  Mayfield does mention that they habitat is seasonally moist to dry.

According to VicVeg, an alternative name for Slender Mint is Wild Mint.